Q 01/05

Which metal, oxidising into a verdigris patina after 1900, gives the Statue of Liberty its colour?

A) Copper

B) Bronze

C) Brass

D) Iron

Answer · why

A) Copper

Copper oxidised into the patina that spread across the statue shortly after 1900, and Congress, taking it for corrosion, voted money to paint the whol...

Q 02/05

Which football team, founded in 1959 as the Titans, was renamed in 1963 to rhyme with its Shea Stadium co-tenant?

A) Buffalo Bills

B) New York Jets

C) Philadelphia Eagles

D) Miami Dolphins

Answer · why

B) New York Jets

The New York Jets also took the name because the team would play near LaGuardia Airport, and the franchise joined the NFL in the 1970 AFL–NFL merger.

Q 03/05

Most 'wasabi' paste served outside Japan is a dyed mixture based on which cheaper root vegetable?

A) Daikon

B) Ginger

C) Turnip

D) Horseradish

Answer · why

D) Horseradish

Horseradish, mustard, starch and green food colouring or spinach powder make up the usual substitute, while real wasabi is grated from a plant in the ...

Q 04/05

The green sea turtle takes its name from the colour of which part of the animal, rather than its olive-to-black shell?

A) Its body fat

B) Its eggs

C) Its tongue

D) Its blood

Answer · why

A) Its body fat

Its body fat turns green from a diet of almost nothing but seagrass and sits in a layer between the inner organs and the shell, while the carapace its...

Q 05/05

Which English king is popularly but wrongly credited with composing the folk tune 'Greensleeves'?

A) Richard III

B) Henry VIII

C) Charles II

D) James I

Answer · why

B) Henry VIII

Henry VIII gets the credit by myth alone; the ballad was first registered in London in 1580, more than thirty years after his death, and the tune is u...